Kingdom Hearts: StarCrossed Souls
by Anna Juliet Dawes
Summary: Anna Juliet and Donnatella Claire-cousins and best friends-are about to enter the most trying time of their secondary education: senior year. They hide it well, but the stress is mounting and they really need one thing: to get away. That chance presents itself when a boy with gravity-defying hair shows up on their front porch, very much in need of a friend or two. OCs, OOC,
1. SHEEEEE'S BAAAACK!

**My best friend and I have been working on this...It must've been sophomore year when we started it. We've been posting on Deviantart via our joint account: girls-who-luv-Ghibli, but I feel like this is definitely a better community for word-art. We have eight chapters currently completed, so please read and enjoy. I'd love some feedback if you can spare the time (which you should if you're actually taking the time to read fan-fiction in the first place). I'll post more chapters based off the general response. Thank you for your time! ~AJ**

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Sheeeee's BAAAACK! – DC

_iPit. Pit pat pit/i. _

_About time,_ I thought, tearing my gaze from the glow of the street lamps and choosing instead to look at the ground for evidence of rain. "Wait a minute…" I muttered when, instead of pavement, I saw only darkness. I mentally groaned, slapping my forehead. For the first time since I had set out at midday, I glanced down at the hands of my Mickey Mouse watch. (Don't ask, it was a gift.) I couldn't do anything but stare, it couldn't be that late, could it? "SHOOT!"

As I ran home, the rain soaked through the thin fabric of my blue/blacktank top and jean shorts, lightly chilling my skin. Despite my rush, I couldn't help but smile widely at the feeling. I probably would've passed right past my house if it weren't for my cousin. "DONNA!"

I skidded to a stop and looked in disbelief at my cousin where she stood with her hands on her hips on my front porch. i_Wait a minute…Wasn't I supposed to jack Matt's car and pick her up at the airport? Crap…/i_

"Donna, are you gunna come up here and give me a hug or not? I just got back from my Spanish trip, did I not?" Then she ran up and glomped me, cursing in Spanish, laughing the whole time. AJ has always loved showing off what she learns… I personally don't think Señorita Mccutcheon should have let them go to that "young peoples'" club. (She was gone for a month. Obviously she made me actually write her letters, as she was writing everyone and wanted someone to actually write her back.)

"Anna!" Mom yelled from inside the house. "WATCH YOUR MOUTH!"

_iMom? Did you take Spanish in the army?/i_

"Aunt Kelli," my cousin shouted back "You say worse on a daily basis! And that's in English where Lex can actually understand. She wouldn't have thought anything about what I said just now if you hadn't brought attention to it!"

My mother paused. I half hoped that for once she'd been rendered speechless. But i_nooo/i!_ "Don't you sass me, young lady!"

"I love you, too, Auntie! And by the way, I wasn't actually cussing!"

_iThat's my cousin for you._/i

Sneakily, I slipped from her hug. "Soooooo…. How was the flight?"

"How do you think it was? It was isuperb/i! Crappy airline food, cheesy movies translated poorly into Spanish, the pillows were NASTY! I ended up next to Spankey the beer gut! And he'd eaten i_fifteen_/i freakin' burritos i_before_/i we got on the plane! I kept telling Professora Mccutcheon that we should have gone to Mexico last, as it was closer…but she wouldn't listen." She sighed, now done with her mini-rant. "Why couldn't you have at least been there when I got off the plane?"

"I—I…um. Well, you see…IT WAS RAINING, OKAY?"

AJ sighed. Thank God, she understood how I felt about the rain…except when she's still airsick. i_Dang it._/i

"I'm still mad." Then my cousin turned to go inside.

"Hey, Dav cousin turned to go how I felt about the rain...Y! I ended up next to Bart! And hd fabric softener bottles.e? Have y'all heard from my parents?"

Uncle Gee and Aunt Tricia were out of town, too, on probably their twentieth honeymoon. AJ's brother Mike off at college, working a summer job and studying independently for the semi-mester. Smo (don't ask, they were drunk, one off of morphine and the other on booze) was with a friend and the friend's grandparents, taking an extended camping trip in Kodak, Alaska.

"Yeah," my stepdad answered. "Got a letter yesterday. They said they'd be back in a couple of weeks."

i_Yet again._/i I saw something flash across my cousin's eyes. Ever since we'd hit sixteen, her parents had started going off an awful lot…or maybe it'd be more accurate to say they'd been going off a lot since they won the lottery. (It makes no sense, as Alabama does not even have a lottery… Yet again, don't ask.) I'd tried to tell them before that it wasn't fair to any of their kids…but they hadn't listened to me. It made my heart ache to see Anna like this.

That's the thing about adults, as they grow and they "learn" they start to forget so much that was once important to them. They look down upon us for our naivety. But maybe i _we/i_ should be the ones looking down on i_them/i_ for their "maturity". Anyway, Bottom line is, her parents were gone and I had to help cheer her up. i_Again._/i

"Lets go outside," I suggested, quietly. "we can i_try/i_ to star gaze."

Anna smiled sadly. "Sure." She grabbed a cup of unnaturally red Kool-Aid and a candy bar and led the way. I grabbed a caffeine-loaded soda and followed her, laughing at my own, non-verbal joke.

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**Please leave a review and remember that we have a wealth of original characters (because Kingdom Hearts basically begs for them!) and this is a warning: some of the actual characters may be so out of character that they may as well be OCs.**

**I appreciate constructive criticism and praise makes me feel loved. But any flaming will be reported, so if you have nasty comments, please keep them to yourself.**

**~AJ (Hopefully DC will be able to comment with me sometime. ^.^)**


	2. Shooting Star

**DC: I'm actually here for this one! I told her to do this ages ago!**

**AJ: *sigh* Here she is. As I said before, this is a collaborative piece. What's your username here again?  
**

**DC: IPleadConspiracy ! But I don't have very much up yet!  
**

**AJ: :) Me neither, so I guess we're even. BTW, I hate your keyboard.  
**

**DC: Do you hate it "so much"?  
**

**AJ: You're not Romano.  
**

**DC: Spain is better anyway.  
**

**Disclaimer: We own nothing but our plot and original characters. Please enjoy and review!  
**

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Shooting Star – AJ

The rain was falling hard as I sat with my two cousins on the front porch of their house in Arab. We were watching what we could of the stars through the dense precipitation.

"Dinner," my aunt called through the open screen. You've gotta love early summer. Despite the intense heat, people actually leave doors and windows open. In this case, it means the house isn't so stuffy that people asphyxiate and Aunt Kelli can yell at us from the kitchen instead of having to come on outside.

The younger of my two cousins, Lexus Hope, ran into the house giggling and chanting "KFC! KFC!" It reminded of the time when she'd asked me what it meant and Matt, her much older stepbrother, had told her "Kentucky Fried _Children_." It had taken forever for Donna and me to convince her that he was lying and that the Fib Monster was going to bite off his toes for it. And its been very difficult stealing all of his open-toed shoes so that she wouldn't figure it out. (Seriously, the guy knows if you go in his room, even if you _don't_clean up the dirty Kleenex, empty "blue pill" bottles, empty boxes that previously held tools for safe sex, and burnt pencils—as if we would actually touch those, but still! At least we know he's not completely stupid…)

When Donna and I didn't respond as quickly, Dave came out to check on us. "Hey, girls. What's up?"

We both just looked at him, trying to conceal our laughter that tried to burst forth at the goofy look on his face. "Sky, clouds, and space," we answered together. I could feel my façade starting to fade, so I averted my eyes back to the sky. The rain was starting to clear up!

Dave chuckled and rolled his eyes at us. "Whatcha doin'?"

"We're star-gazing," Donna answered. In my mind's eye, I saw her turning back to stare at the stars—or at the few we could see. Damn light pollution.

"Star gazing? How can you see anything through this fog and rain? It's thicker than pea soup!"

I shrugged nonchalantly.

"Maybe we know what to look for," Donna replied, finally turning and smiling at her stepfather.

We'd both been kind of uneasy about his and Aunt Kelli's hasty marriage, but now we actually knew Dave…sorta. We were well aware that 1) he was a good guy, and 2) he and Aunt Kelli are unconditionally and irrevocably in love…for real. As in, it's not just hormones and they're not stupid teenagers written about by a woman who seems like a third.

"Well, you two need to come in and wash up for dinner, okay?"

Donna sighed and followed him back into the house. I stayed and continued to stare at the sky. The rain had stopped completely now and the yard was absolutely flooded. The cats were yowling and complaining at me like old women, like they actually thought it was all my fault they were going to get wet next time they decided to go burry their crap in the grass or catch mice.

Just before I was going to turn and go see if there was an available sink, something up in the sky caught my eye.

"Donna!" I shouted, excitement filling my voice. "Hurry up before you miss it! It's a shooting star!"

Donna came sprinting from the kitchen, soap still all over her hands. Matt was complaining loudly to his girlfriend Jordan about the now wet carpet.

When Donna saw the star, she gasped aloud. "Anna! Hurry up and make a wish before you miss your chance!"

My mind was then like a blank sheet of paper at the end of the Writing Assessment. "What should I wish for?"

She just stared at me, looking a little envious. "I don't know. It's your wish."

By now, the star had fallen past the trees, away from where I could see it, but I had a feeling that it was still close enough that my wish wouldn't be wasted.

_Please, Lord,_ I prayed. /iJust grant me this one wish. I want somewhere to belong…Well, not even that. What I really want…what I might even/i need _is just someone to belong with._

"Girls," my aunt called again. "Hurry it up! The food's going to get cold! We're waiting on you!"

We both were laughing as we headed inside. I was hoping against hope that God would choose to answer my prayer. _You just have to have faith_, my subconscious whispered.

Ten minutes later, I was sitting with my two cousins, my aunt, step-uncle, his son, and his son's girlfriend at the big square kitchen table. We were passing around the bucket of extra-crispy chicken wings and having a grand ole' time.

"Anna? Do you wanna give the blessing?" Aunt Kelli asked.

I grinned. "Sure.

"Most gracious and heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and we pray to you to give thanks. You gave us life and we didn't deserve it. You gave us Jesus and we sure as hell didn't deserve him. Lord, we thank you for each and every blessing and we ask that you take this food to the nourishment of our bodies and our bodies into thy service, for it is Jesus' most precious and holy name that we pray, Amen."

Everyone echoed my "Amen," some happily and some quietly… Lexi just dug in to her Mac 'n' Cheese.

While we (tried to) eat, Aunt Kelli and Dave chatted, Donna listened, and I tried to ignore Matt and Jordan who were…being Matt and Jordan…and not eating _food_.

_CRASH! BOOM! BOOM! BAM!_

Lexus Hope, the "brains" of the family, just stared at the window. "Anna," she asked, assuming from my report card that that I knew everything. "What was that?"

"I…don't know."

Everyone just stared at me; some had their eyes twitching.

"Hang on," Dave said. "Didn't we watch that documentary the other day?"

"About the UFO's crashing?" DC asked, eyebrows raising up her forehead. I swear, they were nearly in her hairline. "A.J…."

I stood up suddenly. "May we be excused?"

"Just don't go too far," my aunt answered.

"Do you need my gun?" Dave asked.

"I have my pocket knife," DC replied.

When we reached the door, there was a loud _FWUMP!_I looked at my cousin, cocking one eyebrow. "What was that?"

DC had a wild grin on her face. "Let's check." She opened the door… I screamed. There was a boy we'd never seen before…spread out across the front steps. He was bleeding really badly from the head and all over. His hair was slicked down flat with it and looked even redder than mine. It was longer than DC's. It's not really saying much, as her hair's actually really short, whereas I haven't gotten my hair _cut_in two years. (Anyway, back to the story.)

"DAVE!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"What?" he asked, running. "(insert David phrase)"

Matt, my step-cousin, looked over his shoulder and I swear his very long, "stylish" hair stood on end. "_HOLY FLAMING ZOMBIE BABIES!_" he shouted. "What in the halibut is that? It looks like the Grudge on Steriods!"

The boy, groaning, looked at him, his eyes only half open. "Well you don't look too good yourself, you wanna-be emo." He sounded really crappy, like he was in some serious pain. And like he needed some serious painkillers…or maybe even a happy button hooked to a morphine drip.

Jordan ran over and gasped. "Should we call an ambulance?"

Dave¬¬—ignoring the rest of us—walked out, picked up the boy, and brought him into the house. He crouched and laid him on the tile floor of the kitchen. "Kelli, help me."

"Girls, take Lexus out of here," Aunt Kelli said as she began looking for the lacerations.

We sat there for hours, listening and waiting. I have to admit, it kind of startled me when I heard the shower start.

"Donna, Anna, please come help me with some laundry!" Aunt Kelli called.

The second we walked in, I saw a small pile of drying, bloody clothes.

I frowned. "Did he wake up?"

Aunt Kelli nodded. "Yeah. He's a lot better off than we expected. He was well enough to turn red when Dave offered to help him wash out the blood."

DC and I dissolved into giggles.

Aunt Kelli smiled. "Okay. I just want y'all to wash his clothes."

I picked up the shirt…and it kept its crumpled shape. "Aunt Kelli, how much fabric softener do you want me to use?"

"All of it," she said absently, sitting down to match socks.

"Are you sure, Mom?" Donna asked. "This is a brand-spankin'-new bottle."

"I'm sure, Donna."

We just looked at each other. I shrugged and threw the blood-soaked clothing in and upended both the detergent and fabric softener bottles. _Oversized load, regular fabrics….GO!_

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**DC: RnR plz people!**


	3. Gravity Defying Menace

I tipped over the next basket of laundry. Since we were washing clothes, _everyone_ had decided they wanted their laundry done. _Le sigh._ I swear Matt took clothes out of his closet and stepped on them so they'd be dirty _just_ so that he could be a pain in the ass.

"Anna!" Lexus called. "I have another basket ready!"

I looked imploringly at Aunt Kelli where she sat, mending the holes in the boys pants (from shrapnel, Dave and I thought), or his "Genie Pants" as DC had dubbed them the second they were recognizable as pants in any form or fashion—except in Europe.

My aunt just shrugged. "I'm sorry, honey. Would you mind?"

I sighed and grumpily stomped off to collect my bounty.

When I reached the room , I saw a grungy plomp on top of the pile that consisted mainly of dirty undergarments. "Honey, are these a pair of shoes?" I asked, holding up the very abused, gray canvas.

Lexus just shrugged. "I don't know, Anna."

_I'm gunna kill her._ I thought as I hefted the basket in my arms. She'd piled the lingerie so high that my eyes were level with a brazier, making me feel oddly bug-eyed. In any case, I couldn't see over or around it. _This little girl is seven and has no boobs…How on earth could there be this many bras in the house, even if she's one of four?_

I looked back at my younger cousin. She had gone back to her video game, Kingdom Hearts. _Why does that kid look so familiar?_

I turned to leave, stepping quickly but carefully, trying not to bump into anything. As I began my destined-to-not-ever-be-graceful trek to the laundry room, I remembered something very important. In this family, it doesn't matter how careful you are, because you were going to trip over something. In my case, it was my own two left feet.

"Ghak!" I yelled as I went down like the Titanic.

Someone else screamed in a very emasculating way. Somehow, I knew it was a straight guy. Just don't ask me how.

_Wait a minute!_

Something's not right here…

Matt had left with Jordan hours ago—I'm not the only one around here who has problems with blood—and Dave was on the front porch with a brand new laptop, an ice cold glass of Tequila—blegh—and a fresh pack of cigarettes, so he was in the zone and wouldn't be in for a while.

Neither Matt nor Dave would have been knocked over by my klutziness. Matt would've just let me fall on my face, given enough time to retreat, and Dave wouldn't have let hit the ground, let alone trip.

This guy was completely caught off guard, though he'd tried to help… As a result, there were dirty unmentionables all over the short hallway and I was basically on top of a complete stranger, one who smelled pleasantly like soap.

I glanced up and saw my worst fear: a hot pink towel—the only color clean—sitting a foot away from my head. _Oh snicker doodles._

The boy beneath me groaned. Tripping over everything—even over the air—I rolled away and got up, blushing like a beet. Then I threw the clothes that covered his face into the nearly empty basket, my eyes closed the whole time. I gave him back his towel and pulled him up by the hand. "Are you okay?" It's a good thing I have good enough hearing to tell where I'm going—otherwise, I might have stepped on something.

"Yeah—why are your eyes closed?"

I blushed even deeper. "You dummy." I looked down at the floor, gathered up the rest of the laundry and took off for the washing machine, throwing the clothes in the alcove as unceremoniously as possible and then running for the front porch.

"Anna?" my aunt called. But I was already outside.

I sat on the swing, jerked the pillow out from under Fred the cat—he hissed and tried to attack my hand, so I slapped him away with the same pillow and sent him flying into our Vietnamese neighbors' yard—and screamed bloody murder, muffling the death cry.

_**Sora's POV**_/b/i

I just stared after the girl with the flaming red hair as she ran out the door. I didn't know why, but I felt…really hot—temperature-wise—inside my chest…and at the same time I felt a strange sense of loss.

I was so confused that I didn't register the soft footsteps coming from behind me.

The next thing I heard was "Sora? Why are you naked?"

My face burned and I started to turn around-_So that's why she had her eyes closed_-but I thought better of it. Instead, I wrapped the towel around my waist, glad that whoever it was was behind me.

A little girl with blonde ringlets framing her face walked around, giggling. "It's really you! I couldn't tell when your hair was flat, but now it's easy!"

I blinked at her. "You know my name?"

She giggled again and ran into the room to the left at the end of the hall and shut the door.

"Anna?" someone called again, walking down the opposite hall and stepping into the kitchen. Like the girl from before, she had long red hair but her eyes were blue. "Honey?"

Then she spotted me and smiled, motioning for me to meet her in the middle. "Well, hello—" Her eye twitched. "Honey, how'd you're hair get like that? You didn't get tree sap in it, did you?"

Self consciously, I reached up and touched my hair. "Why? Why's wrong with it?"

"It's gravity-defying!" another girl laughed. _How many girls are there in this house?_ This one had black hair and mismatched eyes—one brown and the other green…just like the first girl. "You're a gravity defying menace!" She started laughing again. _Are they all related? Like, sisters or something?_

"It always sticks up like that. Has since I was little."

The older woman sighed and shoved her hands into her pockets. "I'll get a comb a-hold of it later." She pulled a cigarette and a lighter from her pocket and lit up.

"Don't take it personally," the one with the long black hair said, still smiling. "Mama's OCD."

"I am not, Donatella Claire."

The younger one narrowed her eyes at her mother then turned to me. "Call me Donna or DC, 'cause my real name's too long. This is my mama, Kelli Daw—I mean, Creek. You can call her 'Aunt Kelli.' Most of my friends do."

"Aunt Kelli" tried her best not to gape at my hair—why?—and said "You gave us quite a fright when you fell on our front porch. If I hadn't been a medic in the army, we would've had to take you to the hospital. As it is, you need to drink a lot of juice. Natural sugars help." She glanced down at my towel. "And we'll need to find you some clothes—Donna, do you think that anything of Matt's—"

"I asked him about that before he left. Matt ain't been that skinny since he was in Elementary school. That's why he and Jordan left. He was gunna drop her off and use his employee's discount at Wal-Mart to be nice for once and get some underwear."

My face went a little pink. This was so bizarre.

Kelli blinked. "Well, until I get those holes in his clothes mended, you and Anna need to do the best you can with what you've got—where'd she go anyway? I thought I heard a scream—"

"She's outside," I muttered, looking away.

"I'll go get her," DC said, smiling. "Help yourself to juice from the fridge. There should be some orange juice left. Anna's, Lex's and my room is down that hall"—she pointed down the hall I'd just come from—"last on the left." Then she went outside.

"So, honey," Kelli asked, poking her head in the fridge and pulling out leftovers from the supper I'd probably interrupted. "You got a name?"

"Sora."

"And where are you from?"

_This_ so _wouldn't have happened if I hadn't crashed on the wrong world._ I was pretty sure I was on the wrong world. How could I have missed and landed on the wrong continent?

_**AJ's POV**_/b/i

I pulled my face out of the cat scented pillow and sighed. _That was so embarrassing; I'm gunna die!_

"What's wrong, kid?" Dave asked from across the porch. "You look like you're upset."

I bit my lip. Hard.

I had no problems with my step-uncle, except for my belief that he and my aunt had gotten married a little too quickly. It was just disconcerting. In the years since Uncle Mike had died, I'd gotten so use to—whenever I went to visit Aunt Kelli, Donna, and Lexus—there being no guys, especially not perceptive guys who were completely comfortable with discussing PMS, or MCD as Dave called it. As in "Mad Cow Disease."

"Nothing is wrong…per say."

"You're a bad liar, AJ. That's how I know you're a good kid. But be honest with me." He got up and walked over to where I was sitting, but instead of sitting beside me, he leaned against the porch railing and lit another cigarette.

I sighed. "Remember that kid with the all-over-the-place hair?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I couldn't see around the laundry basket and I tripped and I fell on top of him…and his towel went flying across the hall…and well…you can guess."

"You didn't lose—"

"Hell, no! But it was really awkward. What was worse, he didn't seem to realize it. Kept asking me why my eyes were closed while I was getting the dirty clothes picked up… And it felt like he was staring at me the whole time."

"I see," Dave muttered. He took a puff on his cig and deliberately blew away from me. "And you didn't—"

"No, I didn't see anything. Wasn't 'bout to look, either."

He grinned at me. "You know I'm just teasin' ya,' girl."

I rolled my eyes.

The front door opened. "AJ? You out here?"

I waved and Donna came over and sat beside me. "What's up?"

I sighed. "I'll tell you 'bout it later."

She blinked at me then shrugged. "Well, anyway." She leaned forward to whisper in my ear. "Remember how, when we were little, Grandma got us that Ken doll for Christmas but we didn't have any clothes for him?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, remember? We put him in Barbie's clothes."

"Get to the point, Donna."

"Well, our new friend the gravity defying menace needs something to wear until Mom's done fixing his genie pants."

My eyes widened. I was about to tell her—from sheer embarrassment—that I'd let her have all the fun this time when Matt drove up. His windows were down and scream-o was issuing from his speakers so loud I was afraid they'd burst.

He got out and threw two packages into my lap. He grinned demonically. "It was easy enough to get the right size, but I wasn't sure if he'd want boxers or briefs."

My cheeks—and Donna's too—went scarlet.

"Really, Matt? Really?" DC asked.

"Yes, Donatella. Yes."

Dave was just sitting there laughing at us. Go figure.

DC finally cracked a grin. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me up. I just barely caught the underwear. "Let's go!"

When we entered the kitchen, DC grabbed the package of "whitey-tighties" and threw them down the hall at her stepbrother's bedroom door, muttering something about how ridiculous Matt was.

Then we saw that boy, sitting at the table. Aunt Kelli had fixed him a sandwich and a glass of juice—half of which were gone. It was obvious that he was starving.

He glanced my way—and we—that is to say the boy and I—blushed in unison.

"Am I missing something?" Donna whispered in my ear.

"I'll tell you later," I hissed, looking away.

"Girls, go find something for our friend Sora, please," Aunt Kelli said, sitting down with an apple and a novel.

Donna nodded and dragged me back to the bedroom.

"Are your Care Bear pajama pants clean? I know you took them with you."

I blinked. "Yeah. Wh—Oh!" I watched her search through my bag. The clothes were all jumbled because I'd been rooming with my friend—ex-friend as of right now—whose name was also Anna, Anna Tie. She'd gotten upset at another friend—who was about to be a ninth grade—and started spreading rumors about her. I'd sided with the underclassman, as she wasn't nearly through the neck of the woods and Anna had conquered it already. Kids need a real friend when they're going through (or about to enter) Hell. AKA: Freshman year of high school. As a result of being mad at her, I'd gotten out of the room as soon as I could, meaning everything was unfolded, wrinkled, and "higgle-dee-piggle-dee." "Why are you going to be so mean to him?" I asked her, eyebrows raised.

"Because I feel like it," she answered sweetly. "Once Mom has his clothes fixed, we'll make it up to him. Or, rather, your credit cards will. They won't care, right?"

I sighed. "They won't even notice." Donna quickly tried to change the subject. She knew how sad talking about _them_ made me.

"So—"

"What are y'all doing?" Lexus asked, leaving her video game un-paused, as per usual, even though she was in the middle of a fight.

"Trying to find something for that boy to wear till Aunt Kelli's done patching up his own clothes."

"If he's a boy, why aren't y'all looking for something for him to wear in Matt's room?"

" 'Cause Matt's fat," Matt said, walking in and grinning.

"You are not fat, Matt!" Lexi shouted, running over and slapping at his forearm.

He caught her hand easily and threw her over his shoulder. "Jeez, Lex, I was just kidding." He laughed as he tickled her, and he didn't stop until she gasped that she couldn't breathe. I loved watching their banter—it let me know that Lexi had a worse role model than Donna and me.

I glanced over at the TV. "Lex, you just got a game over, again."

"Aw, man!"

"Why didn't you hit pause?" DC asked, eyebrows raised.

Lexus just glared at her. "It's like you told me, sissy. You don't have a 'pause' button in real life."

"You don't have a 'continue' or 'load game' button either," I pointed out. "But you use those."

"That's different!"

"Naaaaaawt really," I said, dragging out the "o" sound a little longer than I normally would have. I was looking through my tank tops for one that wasn't nearly as mean as what I knew Donna was planning. Blue or brown sure, but she'd pulled out the sparkly pink one that my grandmother—the one DC and I didn't have in common—had insisted I take. I hadn't worn it the whole trip.

"How's this?" I asked Donna, holding up a chocolate brown shirt. The straps were three fingers in width—wide enough for me to have worn to school last year (There're rumors going around that sleeves are officially required now) but they might have sent me home anyway because of the innuendo. "_I like to get_ WILD!" was written in bubble letters across where _my_ boobs would be if I wore it. On that boy, it wouldn't occur to anyone that it was supposed to be dirty, especially considering there was a monkey drawn on the front and giraffe on the back. It was one of a set I'd made for a bunch of my friends in band. It was an inside joke that I'd mentioned to DC, so she understood what it meant and who exactly had said it.

She grinned evilly. "Absolutely."

We grabbed up the outfit and went to where the boy and Aunt Kelli were.

He was on his second sandwich. Aunt Kelli was still reading.

I held out the clothes to him. DC passed the boxers. "Here."

He didn't say anything, but took the clothes. Our hands touched for a moment but he pretended like it was nothing and went to the bathroom to change.

When he came back, it was all we could do not to laugh.

"What?" he asked, blinking.

I shook my head. "Nothing. What did you say your name was again?"

"Sora."

"Well, Sora?" DC asked. "How long do you plan on staying?"

"Um…just long enough to look around. I got separated from a couple of my friends a while back and I've been looking for them ever since…So…yeah."

I raised my eyebrows. "Well, maybe we know them. What are their names?"

He gave a bit of a half smile. "Donald and Goofy."

I blinked. "Nice nicknames."

He grinned, looking back at the table top. "I think those are the names they were born with."

Aunt Kelli whistled. "Those were some cruel parents."

Sora smiled. "Yeah. Sometimes I wonder if Goofy's parents dropped him on his head…a few times…a day…for the entire time before he could walk for himself."

That was so awful but I couldn't help laughing. "Is he that dumb?"

"Not exactly. He just sees the world in a different way than the rest of us do."

Donna snickered. "Sounds like us." She came up behind me and pinched my cheeks into a weird smile. It kinda hurt.

He had to look back at me, but when he saw what Donna was doing, he just smiled sadly. I think it reminded him of something.


	4. Off We Go Into the Commercial Market!

**I'm sorry it's been so long since I've added more chapters. I've been kind of distracted. First there was band camp. Then I had summer reading to finish (which I've given up on and I'm dropping down to regular English rather than trying to take AP, since to do that I would also have to either drop Symphonic band-not gonna happen-or take AP Statistics-also, not gonna happen), and then my younger brother was admitted to the hospital on Monday with an antibiotic-resistant strain of MRSA. He was just discharged today. The swelling's almost completely gone and the infectious diseases team finally found an antibiotic he can take with it that he's not allergic to, thank God.**

**Thank you, for your patience and enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: "Off We Go Into the Commercial Market! Zoom, We're Off to Buy Sora Clothes!"**

Well…We did get into trouble, after Sora fell asleep on the couch. "Why'd you give him Care Bears?" Yada, yada, yada. I love my mom, but she worries too much. Sora obviously didn't care, so Anna and I—more me, really—didn't see any harm done. What? It was funny! I'm not naturally a crue—okay, so maybe I am. That's beside the point, dang it!

Anyway, for breakfast this morning Mom and Anna got up early—tried to get me up too, but it was an ungodly hour…like, eight in the morning, so I refused…rather colorfully—and made a Country/Yankee breakfast, which consisted of hash-browns, eggs (sunny-side, scrambled—they made them to order), French Toast, waffles, oatmeal with fruit, and—the thing that actually woke me up—the sweet, wonderful smell of…(wait for it)…BACON! (Mom put Anna up to it. I swear, the girl actually puts a limit on how much grease _smell_ she'll inhale per day. She's a health freak…except when it comes to chocolate. _Thank God for small miracles._ I'm not unhealthy, but I'm not paranoid like my cousin. She actually has the small change to get the good stuff though…talk about a sore subject…)

That kid-_Man_, he can eat! The Gravity Defying Menace ate more than Dave, almost as much as Matt. All Mom could do was laugh. About twenty years ago, she might've been offended, but after her time in the army, I don't think anything could surprise her…except his hair… My mama's the HBIC!

After breakfast, Mom was staring at Sora's "genie pants," as I'd dubbed them the night before. "Boy, where on Earth did you get those?"

"You mean these?" he asked, pointing to said genie pants. He'd changed when he got up this morning. Mom had done a good enough patch-job that you could only tell they were damaged goods if you looked _really_ closely. "Well, they were kind of custom made, I guess you could say."

Mom did the equivalent of a "facepalm," but with a soapy plate instead of her sudsy hand. "We need to get you some different clothes."

"Anna and I were already planning on that," I spoke up. "That is, assuming we can borrow the truck. Mike's coming home for the camping trip next week, and he said he'd drop off Anna's car by then."

Lexus piped up then. "What are we gunna do about Sora? Is he coming with us?"

Dave pretended to think. "Well…if he pitches in…carries his own stuff…and helps us to get Anna to jump, then sure he can come."

My cousin was gaping at him. "You monster!" she cried.

My stepdad just grinned. "Girl, you need to grow a backbone. You do well in a fight, but heights get you every time." _Does he know something I don't?_

"Yeah," Mama said, rubbing a towel over her now dry hands and bumping Anna with her hip. "Live on the edge a little bit!"

"Are you _never_ going to let me live that down?"

"Nope," mom said, smiling evilly. "I'm going to bring it up at graduation next summer, and your eighteenth birthday party, and your wedding, and—"

"She gets the point, Mama!" I said, laughing. When Anna and I were about eleven years old, we'd been making strawberry cupcakes, just 'cause we wanted to. And Anna had brought up the debate about how it was "dangerous" to eat the batter because it had raw eggs in it. She tried it once, said it tasted powdery, and called it "living on the edge" and so not worth it. She blames me for the bad mixture. Sigh.

"Well," Matt said through a mouthful of eggs. "The mall is an hour away in morning traffic and the mall opened less than ten minutes ago. Plus, your mother's not getting any younger."

As my HBIC mama whacked him with a greasy spatula, I felt my eyes pop open with horror. "Oh, God." Anna looked just as frightened as I felt.

Together, we whispered "The crowds…"

"Is it really so bad?" Sora asked timidly. "Maybe we shouldn't go to this…'mall'…"

Anna's mouth fell open.

"You've never been to a mall?" I asked him, astonished.

"Uh, well, no. What is it, exactly?"

I grabbed my cousin's wrist and started pulling her towards our bedroom. "Mama, we're changing and then we're goin!"

True to my word, when we got back to the bedroom I threw Anna's favorite pair of jeans and a graphicT at her.

She looked at me incredulously. "Are you serious? Where did you even get this?" She showed me the shirt. It showed a glowing vanilla milkshake and three boys running over each other to get to it. Underneath the picture it stated simply "you know it."

"The back of your closet?"

"When and why was it there?"

"I put it in your suitcase when I was helping you pack for the Spanish trip. You bought it last year at spring break when your parents provided tickets for you, me, and a bunch of our friends to go to New Orleans without any adult supervision?" (Epic Uber Happiness!)

Anna shook her head, looking super confused. "I remember the trip…but I didn't buy this t-shirt."

"Uuuuuummm…Well, I didn't say you remembered it…"

"…Did Chris and Gary spike my drink again?" Anna asked as she pulled on her blue jeans.

Me. And. My. Big. Fat. Mouth.

I opened said mouth with a witty retort but it was lost in my throat. I was about to apologize for my friends' behavior (more out of guilt than feeling bad about it…) when my would-be words were drowned out by the terrible ruckus coming from the neighbors' house. I swear it sounded like a live cat in a blender…

The door burst open and Sora entered, hands over his ears. "What is that noise?" he asked.

Anna screamed and tried to pull on the milk shake shirt. It got caught on her glasses. (I almost always forgot she had them because the frames were almost the same color as her face.)

I sighed and pushed Sora out the door. "We'll be out in a minute. I've gotta play optometrist." Then I shut it in his face.

Within fifteen minutes we were ready to go out the door. I'm not bragging or anything, but it was a new record considering how much eyeliner I wear…which is not much, really, but I have to have it perfectly straight or after Anna notices her eye twitches the whole day.

"So where is—" Sora started to ask when Anna's cell phone rang.

"Hang on," she muttered, looking at the display. She flipped it open and smiled. "Hey, Kris.

"Uh-huh.

"Uh-huh.

"Uh-huh.

"Sure. You want us to meet you there or for me to pick you up?

"Yeah…I guess that's the only legal option…

"Okay. We'll meet you at the Cinnabons booth at the Galeria. Bye."

"What the heck was that about?" I asked her, one eyebrow raised.

"Remember Kris?"

"Is that the 'happy' one?"

"Yeah. From our old school. He was asking if we could hang out today since I just got back from my trip and he said he missed me. He guessed that I was with you and he says he misses you as well. And he guessed that we were going to the mall and asked if he could meet us there."

"Isn't he half an hour farther away? How's he gunna get there at the same time."

"He'll get there before us. I love him to death, but the guy drives like a maniac."

Sora just sat there, staring at the seatbelt and looking puzzled. "What's this thing?"

I face-palmed and Anna leaned over to help him. "It's called a seatbelt. It was designed to protect both idiots who don't obey traffic laws and their victims."

"Oh…." he said, tugging it away from his neck after it was fastened. "Is it supposed to hurt?"

I put the side of my face in my hand and looked at the poor boy. "Did you grow up under a rock?"

He shook his head. "No. I grew up on Destiny Islands. We don't have cars there, but we do have crappy school uniforms…bad trade off, just sayin."

Anna giggled. "You are the brother of my soul. I have one too and it _sucks_!"

I looked out the window knowingly as Anna backed out the driveway in our grandfather's old, beat-up, brakeless truck. _Yeah_, I thought._Brother. Sure._


End file.
